She was born May 20, 1924, in Swainsboro, Ga., to James Lee Harrison Mills and Allie Jane Womack Mills. She moved to Florida in 1950 “because oranges paid more than cotton” she said. She worked on a sharecropping farm, canning plant, and was a nurse’s aide before retiring from Stanley Home Products. She was a member of the Emmanuel Baptist Church.

Evell was preceded in death by husband, Robert Anderson; sons, Dewey Hadden and Carlton “Jack” Hadden.